I'm With You

Summary: Solar flares hit the Earth, cutting all of the electricity and destroying all methods of communication. Water levels and crime rate start to go up and a group of teens struggles to survive.

Chapter 1: Luna

It was like my life shattered. My friends were who knows where and my sister… That little idiot could be dead and the last thing I would’ve said to her was to put away the cereal…

I was walking back home from school when there was the brightest flash of light. A moment later, this wave of heat rolled over me and I heard this huge crashing sound. I could feel my head spinning for a second. I grabbed onto a telephone pole to stop myself from falling over.

After I had collected myself, I looked around. Everything seemed the same, but something was wrong. Very wrong.

I looked up and saw these colors flaring up in the sky. Greens, pinks, blues, purples. It was beautiful. They were the Northern lights… But that wasn't supposed to happen here, in New England.

I remembered a lesson in science last year, when we’d learned that the northern lights appeared where the magnetic field of the Earth was thinner.

“What the heck?” I muttered to myself. Something very big had happened.

Suddenly, an electrical wire above me exploded, sparks flying.

I ran for it. I ran until my breaths started catching in my throat.

Come on, Luna. Think. What happened? What the hell could change the fucking magnetic field of the Earth? I closed my eyes. The phrase CME came to mind. Colossal Mass Ejections. They were solar flares with the power to ruin our world completely. They would cut all the electricity in the world. And then poof we’re left in the dark.

I heard sirens getting closer as an ambulance sped by.

I started to jog, going closer to where people hung around. There, I saw buildings that had collapsed, burned bodies on the ground and electrical wires sparking wildly. I probably just missed the threshold of where the flare had done its destruction.

Then there were these people who were running around screaming their damn heads off. They had no idea of what happened or what to do. They weren’t thinking.

Think, Luna. Be prepared. My mind told me.

I ran into the grocery store and grabbed as many non-perishable items as I could. Apparently, other people had the same idea. Inside was crazy. People were fighting over cans of tomato soup and macaroni.

I ran out of the store, as fast as I could, after getting some cans of food, not feeling like getting attacked

Good. Now you have food and water. I thought. I’d also grabbed a knife which was hanging from one of my belt loops. Just in case.

I looked around for any familiar faces, but I found none. I just saw people walking around, looking lost, like me. But there were also people being violent.

Two men were attacking each other over who knows what. There were fights like that happening everywhere.

Seriously? We should be banding together! Not fighting!

My heart raced. Go somewhere safe.

My ‘safe’ place was the tiny forest in this city.

I stood on my tip toes and looked around. I could barely see anything through the tree branches. I hopped up and down, hoping that maybe being taller than four eleven for a second would help.

I noticed movement out of the corner of my right eye. I looked over and saw a tall person with a head of curly brown hair, someone easy to spot in a crowd, through the trees.

Is that… I thought.

I walked closer and saw that the boy was my age, sixteen, and was walking with two girls, the same age.

It is!

“Hey! Flint! Clio, Penny!” I called to the trio.

They looked over at me. “Luna!” they all said.

“Oh my goodness! You have no idea how glad I am to see you people!” I said, rushing over to my friends.

“Does anyone know what happened?” asked Penny

“I thought it was solar flares…” I said, not wanting to be right. “All the signs match up.”

“Yeah, I think she’s right,” said Clio. “Honors earth science coming in handy!” She wore that anxious, dimpled smile she had. When she spoke, it always sounded like she was laughing a bit. She had lightly tanned skin and sleek brown hair, which she wore in a ponytail.

“What exactly do we plan on doing?” asked Flint, playing with his rope bracelet.

“We should try to find the rest of our friends,” said Penny. “We should stick together.”

I nodded in agreement.

xXx

We spent an hour searching for our friends, but without any luck. We tried calling them, but the cell signal was gone.

“Guys, they take the T. We should check there,” said Penny.

The rest of us nodded in agreement, but Clio was frowning.

“What’s wrong?” I asked., starting to frown with her.

“Shouldn’t the T stations be flooded? They’re underground. So many structures broke and some of the lines go by water…” she said.

“We still need to check. We can’t just leave them there,” said Flint.

“Yeah,” said Penny.

“Let’s go, then…” I said with uncertainty.

We hustled to the station and started to go down the stairs. As we got down a flight, lukewarm water already started to soak our shoes. After getting to going down another flight, it was up to our knees. In my case, it was almost halfway up my thighs.

When I looked down to the ground level, I saw that the entire place was flooded. But that wasn’t really the bad part. There were bloated bodies floating on the water. There were so many, their hair splayed out around their heads, their mouths still open in a scream.

“There’s no way they survived down there,” said Flint, sounding defeated.

“I bet they found a way out,” said Penny, hopefully. “They’re smart.”

“Yeah,” said Clio, taking Penny’s hand in a comforting gesture, but she didn’t look as certain as Penny did.

I could feel the water quickly rising up my legs. In fact, by now, it was almost to my waist.

“Guys, we need to go to high ground. Now,” I said.

Penny cast a look at the flooded station and nodded.

We trudged up the stairs, through the water and started to go to the Hancock building.

And that’s when it happened. Another flash of light came over the world and then there was this crashing sound.

None of us had any idea what it was, but we ran as fast as we possibly could.

Water was rushing around our feet after a minute.

“Tsunami,” muttered Clio.

That only caused us to run faster. By the time we reached the Hancock building, it was up to our knees.

We ran to an emergency flight of stairs in the building and sprinted up them. My legs and lungs were burning. My body told me to stop and let it rest, but my mind told me to keep going. DO NOT STOP! It yelled.

We finally got to the top floor, coughing and gasping for air.

We shoved open the door and looked inside. There were a few businesspeople standing there, along some other adults, along with a few kids and teens.

“You’re here!” a male voice shouted. I looked over and saw that the speaker was Tomas. He was standing with Piers, Alexandria and Alice.

We beamed back at them. But my smile faded when Penny asked, “Where’s Devin?”

Our friends faces fell.

“He’s gone. He got swept away,” said Alexandria. Everyone in the room gave us sympathetic looks.

“Oh,” was all I could say.

“I’m sorry,” said one of the ladies standing there.

“We can’t do anything about it now,” said Alexandria, her eyes downcast, almost looking ashamed.

Ahmad Momenai:
it was a great time reading this story,i really enjoyed it but there were many, if not some plot holes that I'm curious how would be filled. plot holes like 'what happened to the baby tree?' 'what happened to the uncle and the godfather?' what happened to the scientists?' .i would love to read a ...

Sara Huppman:
My only pet peeve was that there were spelling errors. In one of the last chapters there was a mistake it said Melanie handed the hanky back to Chrystal. It was supposed to be Jess. Great book great plot. Didn't need some of the references to modern day culture like the line about frozen. If ther...

Jasmine Chow:
As I read this story, I was reminded some what of Terry Pratchett, especially some descriptions of politics and economics. The sci-fic setting is quite intriguing. Writing style is quite lovely and grew on me slowly. I was also slightly reminded of Mark Twain, especially his book A Connecticut Ya...

William Elliott Kern:
John, first congratulations on submitting one of the best written and most creative stories of the civil war period...........This story takes place in the 1860's with an abusive Father against his new horse, later a rough patch with his Daughter Elizabeth. The war of words between the Father an...

William Elliott Kern:
Interesting Story, with Jacob, the second Son of Baron Ironwood to learn his duties, provide his numbers and prepare for marriage to Anna......Along the way, the wise Monk, Francis came to Ironwood, filled the ears of Jacob with hope and positive direction, a gift for Jacob well needed. The Stor...

debmart6901:
I could not put this story down. I stayed up reading when I should have been in bed. could not get enough, could not wait to find how it ended. Great story telling. Great detail. Loved it. The characters were very vivid.

Ding Fernando:
very nice read.so realistic you can hardly put it down,i really like the character so human despite posessing immortality and eternal youth.though i would prefer a better ending..i still love this novel and i am recommending it to all sci fi fans to give it a try .you will love it too!!

Pablo Rojas:
Love the story, at the end it is a western story, simple, yet giving hints and pieces of the situation that is happening all over ravencroft´s universe. easy to read and always keeping with the main stream story I want to keep reading about, Olafson´s adventures.

Jordano Quaglia:
I was taken to the future, to the shock of worlds among the people in the underground versus the mutants. The characters are well defined and rich in details, as I felt that I empathized well with them and envied their adventures while being scared by their predicament. It i a world that I would ...

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